Officials in Tunisia have been “dragging their feet” on efforts to repatriate Tunisian children of ISIS group members from camps in Syria, Iraq and Libya, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. The rights group, quoting Tunisia’s ministry of women and children, said about 200 children and 100 women claiming Tunisian nationality were being held in “squalid” camps abroad. Many of the children are six-year-olds or younger, the rights groups said, adding that most were ...

The wife of ousted Nissan Motor Co Ltd chairman Carlos Ghosn has urged Human Rights Watch to bring attention to the “harsh treatment” he has received while being detained in a Japanese jail, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Sunday. Japanese authorities have charged Ghosn with under-reporting income and aggravated breach of trust for temporarily transferring personal investment losses to Nissan in 2008. Carole Ghosn, in the nine-page letter to Kanae Doi, the Japan director for ...

Greek authorities on Wednesday released from pre-trial detention four members of a charity working with migrants who had been arrested in August for allegedly helping migrant smuggling, their lawyer said. Among the four was Syrian refugee Sara Mardini, who gained international attention when she and her sister - both competitive swimmers - reached the Greek island of Lesbos in 2015, swimming for their lives after the inflatable boat they had left Turkey in started taking on water. The four face ...

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Media dismissed as baseless reports on Friday allegations of the torture of detainees in the kingdom. “The government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia categorically and strongly denies the allegations made by them. The wild claims made, quoting anonymous ‘testimonies’ or ‘informed sources’, are simply wrong,” the ministry of media said in a statement.

Iran’s judiciary convicted at least 24 protesters, including two women, on vaguely defined national security charges, Human Rights Watch said today. Their prison sentences ranged from six months to six years. They were among more than 50 people arrested on August 2 during a protest in Tehran about deteriorating economic conditions and corruption. Authorities also arrested a human rights lawyer who had been convicted to three years in prison for reporting a protester’s death in ...

At least 27 people are being held by ISIS in southern Syria, Human Rights Watch said Saturday as it deplored the hostage-taking as a "war crime".The group of mostly women and children were abducted by ISIS during a massive July 25 assault on the Druze community in Sweida, in which the extremists killed more than 250 people.They are being held by ISIS to use as leverage in negotiations with the Syrian government and its ally Russia, according to HRW."Hostage-taking is a war ...

The unequal divide between those that have and those that have not is widening across the world, putting under strain not only established political systems but endangering domestic and international security.A rise in domestic violence levels and international refugee flows are some of the consequences of this growing wealth divide. It comes as no surprise that this widening poverty gap is not only the fate of mismanaged developing countries where kleptocracy is often rampant, but also in ...

Human Rights Watch criticized on Sunday Jordan’s decision to end medical protections for Syrian refugees residing outside of camps in the kingdom. Jordan, which hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have fled war in their country since 2011, took a “step forward” and another “step back for urban refugees”, granting them legal status while revoking health subsidies, HRW said. On March 4, Jordan began to regularize the status of thousands of vulnerable refugees ...

Human Rights Watch on Friday accused Iraqi Kurdish security forces of carrying out mass executions of detainees alleged to be members of ISIS. The watchdog said the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters detained Iraqis and foreigners at a school in Sahel al-Maliha, 70 kilometers northwest of Mosul, from which ISIS was expelled in July. “The evidence suggests that Asayish (Kurdish) security forces conducted mass executions of captured ISIS suspects night after night for a week, perhaps killing scores ...

Human Rights Watch called on Ankara on Saturday to stop using “lethal force” against Syrians trying to cross into Turkey, urging it to open its border to those seeking asylum. A major offensive waged by Syrian government troops in the northwestern province of Idlib has displaced more than 270,000 people since mid-December, according to the United Nations. Many have tried to flee into Turkey, but border guards have been “indiscriminately shooting at and summarily returning ...